This disclosure relates to weather simulation, and more specifically, to techniques for providing a centralized weather simulation server that is remotely accessible using a provided Application Program Interface (API).
Various methodologies have been developed that provide flight training and/or analysis of pre-recorded activities. One methodology provides a realistic, three-dimensional software flight simulation in order to allow pilots to practice flight techniques without actually flying in an airplane (e.g., a flight simulation application). In such programs, a user can complete a simulated flight and then play the simulation back to analyze their performance. Programs of this nature provide realistic simulations of flight in an artificially generated three-dimensional environment in which aircraft behaviors are modeled quite accurately with respect to the physics of flight. Such simulation programs can simulate flights at various geographical locations and in various conditions, e.g., time of day, weather conditions, and so on.
Weather simulation is a difficult and computationally expensive process due to the modeling of airflow, temperature, precipitation, and various other variables. As such, weather simulation systems are generally implemented using high-end computing hardware and/or distributed computing techniques. However, such systems are generally outside of the price range of an ordinary consumer and ill-suited for use in most computer and/or video games.
Nonetheless, some computer programs in the simulation genre depend on weather simulation to provide a realistic virtual world. For example, flight simulation applications may simulate the weather in which the user is flying to render frames that realistically depict the conditions within the virtual world. Furthermore, flight simulation applications can determine whether the user should fly under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), which in turn can affect the user's actions, including instrument manipulation and communications with air traffic control (ATC).